through the lense of perception

Chia Seeds

My grandfather can speak Urdu. Often when I go to his house, he says things in Urdu that are poetic and meaningful. For instance, he calls me fatto which he says he has taken from “Fateh” aka victory.

Today I am going to write about “Tukh Malanga”(Urdu) or Chia seeds. When I go to my grandparent’s house in the summers, We are given sherbats with this jelly like seed in it. These seeds are supposed to internally cool your body. We use them alot in Falooda’s (that is eaten along with the Indian Ice cream -Kulfi).

In Kerala, I came across tukh malanga while having the Kulki soda!

While reading about chia seeds on the internet, I came across Chia pets which are made by allowing chia seeds to grow on a porous surface. The surface allows water to seep into the seeds and thus grow.

There are some very funny chia pets online a few of which I have included below